{"id":199190,"date":"2022-08-25T11:24:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T09:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=199190"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:30:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:30:18","slug":"delete-this-chrome-extension-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/delete-this-chrome-extension-now\/","title":{"rendered":"You need to delete this Chrome extension now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The app and plugin Internet Download Manager is a well-respected program that allows users to grab and download pretty much any file from the internet. Unfortunately, a concerned user has raised the alarm about a fake version of the plugin that has been available on the Chrome Web Store since June 2019<\/strong>, and maybe even longer. Here is what you need to know.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\r\n \"Google\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n Google Chrome<\/span>\r\n Download Now<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/path><\/path><\/text><\/svg>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The fake Internet Download Manager Chrome extension has been downloaded by over 200,000 users <\/strong>since it launched on the Chrome Web Store. If you have mistakenly downloaded it onto your version of Chrome you should delete it now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fake plugin does offer some sort of download management functionality, which is probably why it is still active on so many machines. However, it also performs other unwanted actions such as loading up spammy websites<\/strong> without any sort of prompting, changing the browser\u2019s default search engine<\/strong>, pushing lots of pop-up ads<\/strong> and even prompting users to download patches for programs that they don\u2019t have installed<\/strong> on their computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fake plugin has been published by a company called Puupnewsapp<\/strong>, so you need to look out for that developer and make sure you do not download and install their version of the plugin. You can also see an image of the plugin\u2019s icon above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real Internet Download Manager<\/a> plugin relates to the app we mentioned earlier and is published by software company, Tonec<\/strong>. In fact, the plugin only references the title and so doesn\u2019t even have Internet Download Manager in its name. Instead, it is called IDM Integration Module <\/strong>and there are official plugins for both Chrome and Firefox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story clearly underscores the need to be more careful than ever when working online<\/strong>. You need to be completely sure that you can trust all links you click on files you download otherwise you can end up in a world of pain. A prime example of just how bad things can get if you don\u2019t pay attention is this fake job offer hack that ended up costing a company $620 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image via: BleepingComputer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The app and plugin Internet Download Manager is a well-respected program that allows users to grab and download pretty much any file from the internet. Unfortunately, a concerned user has raised the alarm about a fake version of the plugin that has been available on the Chrome Web Store since June 2019, and maybe even … Continue reading “You need to delete this Chrome extension now”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":199197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2378],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-199190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionchrome"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323317,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199190\/revisions\/323317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199190"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=199190"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=199190"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=199190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}